Americans in Japan

Americans in Japan

Total population
(51,321 (2012))
Regions with significant populations
Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Yokohama, Fukuoka
Languages
Japanese • English

Americans in Japan (在日アメリカ人/在日米国人, Zainichi Amerikajin / Zainichi Beikokujin) comprise people from the United States residing in Japan and their descendants. Larger numbers of Americans began going to Japan after the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, under which Commodore Matthew C. Perry forced Japan to open to international trade. As of 2012, Americans formed 2.4% of the total population of registered foreigners in Japan, with 51,321 U.S. citizens residing there, according to the statistics of Japan's Ministry of Justice. This made them the sixth-largest group of foreigners; they had formerly been the fifth-largest, but were surpassed by Peruvians in 2000.

History

The first Americans to come to Japan actually predated Perry by nearly six decades. In 1791, two merchant vessels from Massachusetts, the Lady Washington and the Grace, landed at Kushimoto, near Osaka, under the pretense that they were taking refuge from a storm. They began negotiations with Japanese authorities there about the potential of opening trade, but made no headway, and departed after eleven days. Another early American resident of Japan who predated Perry's arrival was Ranald MacDonald (1824–1894), a man of Scottish and Chinook descent, and the first to teach the English language in Japan.

Especially prior to World War II, it was a common practice for issei Japanese Americans to send their nisei children to Japan for education. Known as Kibei (帰米), they often found themselves the subject of discrimination from their classmates in Japan during their studies; upon their return to the United States, their Japanese American peers also derided them as "too Japanesey" for their alleged authoritarian mindset and pro-Japanese militarist sympathies.

Health issues

Americans in Japan overall had similar pattern of mortality to Americans at large, according to one 1986 study; however, American women in Japan showed a somewhat elevated propensity to strokes.

Notable individuals

This is a list of current and former American citizens whose notability is related to their residence in Japan.

• Tarō Akebono (born Chad Haakeo Rowan), first foreign-born sumo wrestler ever to reach Yokozuna rank
• Billy Blanks, fitness guru and martial artist
• Thane Camus, television personality
• Dante Carver, actor
• Kent Derricott, television personality
• Leah Dizon, singer and model
• Marty Friedman, guitarist and TV personality
• William Gorham, early-to-mid 20th century engineer
• Patrick Harlan, television personality, better known as "Pakkun"
• Daniel Kahl, television personality
• Donald Keene, Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture
• Carolyn Kawasaki, model and television personality
• Bernard Krisher, Journalist, publisher and philanthropist. First to interview Tenno Showa (Emperor Hirohito) in a one-on-one interview in 1975.
• Konishiki Yasokichi (born Saleva'a Fuauli Atisano'e), former sumo wrestler and the first foreign-born wrestler to reach ozeki rank
• Tony László, freelance journalist, activist, and leading character of My Darling is a Foreigner manga series and movie
• Dave Spector, TV commentator
• Takamiyama Daigorō (born Jesse James Wailani Kuhaulua), former sumo wrestler and the first foreign-born wrestler to win the top division championship
• Hikaru Utada, singer
• Walter Tenney Carleton, International businessman and founding director of NEC

See also

• Japan-United States relations
• Occupation of Japan
• Gaijin, the Japanese term for foreigners